Auburn continues taxi license hearing again

Tuesday

For the second time in less than two months, Auburn selectmen voted to continue a hearing on a taxi license for City Line Taxi owner Michael A. Robidoux of 81 Bancroft St.

Selectmen had voted on Nov. 14 to take no action on the license, after they were told that the applicant was about to be arraigned for allegedly writing a bad check.

Julie A. Jacobson, town manager, said the original motion “had been dismissed without prejudice,” but that two new charges had been filed against Mr. Robidoux by the district attorney’s office.

Selectman Timothy E. Hicks said he would like more information before voting on the license, and board member Stephen R. Simonian said he wanted an opinion from town counsel before “putting the town in a bad position. We are setting a precedent either way.”

After the meeting, Mr. Robidoux said both new charges against him are related to the check originally at issue, “which has been paid and has nothing to do with this license anyway.”

Selectmen also voted to authorize the acceptance and expenditure of a $2,000 grant, should it be awarded from the Citizen Corps Program. The funds would be used to purchase 10 portable radios for members of the town’s Community Emergency Response Team.

Finally, selectmen agreed to continue their discussion on the town manager’s evaluation process to their next meeting.

In March, the board had set 10 goals and objectives for Ms. Jacobson, and a proposed form from the evaluation subcommittee addressed only those 10 goals.

Mr. Hicks pointed out that he had worked on a prior evaluation subcommittee to establish other criteria, which were not included in the proposed evaluation form. He said that if his work was “skipped or thrown out, members should at least be able to see it.”

Ms. Jacobson said it was unfair to evaluate her using criteria she had not seen, so could not work to meet. She suggested that the additional criteria be used to evaluate her performance in her second year on the job.

Also at the Jan. 9 meeting, selectmen read a proclamation in honor of the state champion Auburn High School girls’ soccer team, whose “athletic excellence through hard work and perseverance is a worthy effort to acknowledge.”

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